Esophageal Disorders Program

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NYP/Columbia’s Center for Motility and Neurogastroenterology

At NYP/Columbia, general thoracic surgeon Frank D’Ovidio, MD, PhD, is collaborating with gastroentereologists David Markowitz, MD and Daniela Jodorkovsky, MD, to help patients with complex esophago-gastro-intestinal motility disorders. A wide range of services is now offered by a panel of experts at the Center for Motility and Neurogastroenterology, one of a few such programs in the nation.

“There are difficult medical and surgical aspects to the treatment of motility disorders,” says Dr. D’Ovidio, “and this prompted us to start a multidisciplinary review of our most difficult cases. Columbia’s collaborative team now provides a valuable resource for referring physicians in the tristate area.”

“It’s not easy to tease out how these pathologies need to be addressed,” Dr. D’Ovidio adds. “To get to the right treatment, we have to investigate them carefully and see how they evolve over time.”

Many of these patients suffer from lung disease that may be associated to the motility disorder, and may go onto need a lung transplant as well. Dr. D’Ovidio is also surgical director of Columbia’s nationally recognized Lung Transplant Program.

The Center for Motility and Neurogastroenterology performs over 500 motility studies a year. However each study is reviewed and analyzed carefully in order to help guide management. “Our collaborative approach is particularly helpful for challenging cases that require input from gastroenterologists, surgeons, pathologists, and radiologists," says Dr. Jodorkovsky, director of the Center.

"In addition to esophageal symptoms, some patients may have other gastrointestinal symptom, We see this particularly before and after lung transplantation . Wireless motility capsules, a novel device used to assess whole gut transit, can be useful in delineating the degree of dysmotility," says Dr. Jodorkovsky.